Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Legacy
by Richard Onasi
Summary: A second ultimate coordinator that serves as an Atlantic Federation Combat Coordinator to ensure his family's safety from Blue Cosmos. AU but sticks to the storyline closely. Gundam belongs to Bandai and Sunrise.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Battle of Mombasa

0600 Hours

August 28, C.E. 70

Mombasa, Kenya, South African Union

Earth Forces Alliance Territory

A series explosions rocked the earth as the four missiles fired from the GINN hit their targets. Four Linear Tanks went up in an inferno and ceased to exist. Major Nicolai Petrov scowled in disgust at the GINN's feat. It had been like this all morning; a Zaft fleet had been sent from Carpentaria and had been assaulting the coastal city of Mombasa since midnight. It was obvious that this attack was merely a precursor to an all out assault of the Lake Victoria Spaceport. Since its failed assault back in March, Zaft had made no major push to take the Spaceport. While Zaft forces had been winning major victories in Northern Africa, such as their successful capture of the Suez Base back in May it was a staggering stalemate every where else on the African Continent incurring massive losses on both sides. If Mombasa fell Zaft would use it as a beachhead and slowly advance inland and attack the Spaceport. The Habilis Mass Driver was easily the only target of interest for Zaft in the African Continent. If it was captured or destroyed it would significantly lower the Earth Forces capability to launch supplies into Space dealing a massive blow to the Alliance. Major Petrov had been placed in command of the base here which was consisted mostly of Eurasian forces. The base responded to the attack with 40 F-7D Spearhead Fighters, 50 Linear Tanks, 20 Linear Artillery units, 30 Missile Trucks, and a sizeable amount of fixed cannons. But they were severely outgunned by Zaft's 30 AMF-101 DINN's, 30 ZGMF-1017 GINN's, and 24 UMF-4A GOOhN's. Over half of their fighting strength was already destroyed. Missile launchers fired dozens of missiles at the incoming DINN's and one went up in an explosion. The surviving Mobile Suits fired their machine guns and the destroyed the launchers. A line of four Linear Artillery units were firing at incoming missiles launched from a Vosgulov class attack submarine. They were able to destroy a few of the incoming missiles but were overwhelmed by the shear numbers that were fired at them and they simply ceased to exist. Six UMF-4A GOOhN's rose from the ocean and walked on the beach. They fired their torpedoes and Phonon Masers destroying several fixed cannons and tanks. The Major was once again angrily demanding to Command for reinforcements. The man on the other end of the channel asked him to remain calm and that their situation was being considered. The Major quietly cursed in Russian; of course they were considered his situation those bastards back at Command were always considering the situation he wanted to know when they were going to do something about it. After five minutes, in which six F-7's and five Linear Tanks were destroyed, he got a response from Command telling him that reinforcements were on the way. While this was good news it did not change things. The nearby Zanzibar base could get help to them, within an hour but by then the battle would be over.

While Major Petrov was considering whether to order a retreat one of his Lieutenants exclaimed, "Sir were detecting a Descent Pod entering the atmosphere."

"How many?"

"Just the one," said the officer in disbelief.

The Major shared in his confusion a Zaft Atmospheric Dropship was capable of launching 11 descent pods each with the ability to hold four Mobile Suits. If Zaft was sending reinforcement why only launch the one pod? Petrov grabbed a pair of binoculars and scanned the sky and spotted it.

"What in God's name is that!?"

Once he saw it he knew that this was not a normal Descent Pod. It was much smaller probably only containing one Mobile Suit and the design was different from the standard Zaft Descent Pod. Seals on the pod released, the outer layer exploded off, and a single ZGMF-1017M GINN High Maneuver Type appeared. The Major swore loudly in his native tongue, he had heard of battles where GINN HMT's had easily massacred everything that opposed them. Although it was strange that a Mobile Suit designed mostly for Space combat would be sent and why only one. The GINN had a custom color scheme of bright and dark green with some white and orange. That and it bore a unique symbol on its shoulders a golden Eagle with two swords behind it of the same color. Its massive wings activated and with great speed flew toward a nearby GINN. The GINN turned to face it. The HMT GINN pulled out a rifle and fired what appeared to be a burst of energy. It reminded him of the beam weaponry used on the space bound warships of both sides, albeit a smaller more compact version of the technology. The GINN absorbed the blast losing its left arm. Two more blasts to its head and chest caused the Mobile Suit to explode. Three nearby DINN's flew towards it firing their machine guns at it. The HMT easily dodged their bullets and returned fire. Two of the DINN's were destroyed by the HMT's rifle and the third was sliced in half by what looked like an energy sword from an old movie made back in the 1970's of the A.D. era. What was going on why was the Zaft Mobile Suit attacking its allies.

"Do not fire on that Mobile Suit," Petrov ordered.

"Sir?" "Just do it Lieutenant,"

"Yes Sir!" Petrov wasn't going to question why this was happening, he was just thankful that it was happening. After the battle was over there would be plenty of time for questions. The HMT continued on its rampage destroying all that challenged it. It had already destroyed seven Mobile Suits in the few minutes that it had been here. Several Mobile Suits became distracted by the situation and were destroyed when they lost focus of their targets. The six GOOhN's that were on the beach fired their Phonon Masers at the HMT. The GINN avoided the blasts and using its energy sword slashed them all in half. Another GINN came up from behind the HMT and swung its sword at the Mobile Suit. The HMT dodged and swung with its own blade. Their blades met but instead of connecting the HMT's sword cut right through the GINN's sword and kept going until it slashed the other Mobile Suit in half. A Vosgulov class attack submarine surfaced from the ocean and its vertical launch catapults extended in preparation to launch mobile suits. The HMT flew toward the carrier sub and hovered over its open launch catapults. It fired several shots into the three DINN's that were preparing to launch. The sub launched missiles at the Mobile Suit which the HMT easily evaded. It then destroyed all of the subs missile pods. The pods destruction must have ignited the ordinance because the whole sub went up in a series of explosions. The craft then sank as it took on water. Another Vosgulov class surfaced and shot off a series of colored flares. It was a withdrawal signal, they were retreating! The surviving Mobile Suits broke off and sped toward their carriers. Once they had returned the subs submerged. Radar showed that they were heading up the coast toward Zaft controlled territory of the African Community. Major Petrov breathed a sigh of relief. They had survived, not only that they had won. It was a small victory in a war of seemingly endless defeats. But their job was not over. There were still fires to put out, wounded to treat, and dead to bury. Petrov thanked whatever deity watched over the military. If that GINN HMT had not shown up when it did, they would have been overrun within the hour. Still they had suffered heavy losses 25 F-7D's, 30 Linear Tanks, 20 Missile Trucks, 14 Linear Artillery Units, and most of the fixed armaments were destroyed. The Mobile Suit landed outside the command center and deactivated.

"Surround that Mobile Suit!"

"Yes Sir!"

A squad of five Linear Tanks surrounded the GINN HMT and aimed directly at its cockpit. Major Petrov grabbed a bullhorn a bellowed loudly into it "Exit your Mobile Suit immediately or we will open fire!" The cockpit opened and the pilot came out. The pilot was wearing a bright green pilot suit that matched the color of the GINN. The pilot came down from the cockpit on the mobile suits mechanical rope lift and took his helmet off. The pilot was only a teenager probably only fifteen or sixteen. He had shiny brown hair, his face was cleanly shaven, and had hazel eyes. And unlike other members of his age group he appeared not to suffer from facial acne. While it was not uncommon to see 15-18 year olds enlisting in this war, it was shocking that someone so young had defeated so many of Zaft's Mobile Suits. Even more shocking was that this soldier bore the symbol of the OMNI Enforcer on his pilot suit. That meant this pilot was a member of the Earth Forces. What would a member of the Earth Forces be doing in a GINN?

"Identify yourself," ordered Petrov. The pilot came to attention and saluted

"Sir, Lieutenant Junior Grade Richard Onasi of the Special Forces."

"At ease Lieutenant, may I ask why you here and why the Hell you were piloting that GINN?"

"Sir Command sent me to reinforce your base and keep it from falling to the enemy. I cannot answer your second question sir, it is classified and you do not have the proper clearance. In fact this incident has been classified and you are ordered by Command not to mention this to anyone understood, sir?"

"Yes I understand my orders Lieutenant."

"Sir," said a NCO as he ran to them. "A transport plane has just landed; we have received orders to have the Mobile Suit and its pilot loaded on board."

"Very well have the GINN loaded on the transport."

"Yes Sir!"

Petrov realized that he would probably never see the Lieutenant again and wondered what would happen to him. As the pilot started to walk toward the transport the Major took the opportunity to call out to him, "Lieutenant Thanks for getting us out of that jam, if you hadn't shown up we all be dead by now."

Richard turned around and replied, "No problem Major, just doing my job."

************

Richard had just begun climbing up the stairs that led to the passenger compartment of the plane when he started to review today's battle. He had done well today destroying seventeen Mobile Suits and a Vosgulov class attack submarine. Quite the achievement, his superiors would probably pin another medal to his chest. While serving his country brought him great pride, he had long ago stopped keeping track of the honors that he had been awarded. Though many in the Earth Alliance viewed Coordinators as nothing more than weapons to be used to achieve victory in this war, a good number of high ranking military officers decided to recognize the achievements of their Coordinator soldiers. As a result many Coordinators who served in the Earth Forces had been awarded with an assortment of commendations for their actions. That is the ones that weren't brainwashed. Once he had entered the passenger compartment he sat down in a seat, placed his helmet on the seat next to him, and leaned his head against the wall. He was exhausted; he had participated in several skirmishes over the last week and had barely finished a battle in space when he had been ordered to aid in Mombasa's defense. Hopefully he would be able to get some down time before he was issued another assignment. The door that connected the cockpit and the passenger compartment opened and a man stepped into the room. The man was in his late twenties to early thirties, had blond hair, and wore a business suit. So much for some time off. It was Muruta Azrael, the last person on the planet he wanted to see right now. Muruta Azrael was the director of the Atlantic National Defense Conglomerate, a weapons company that is the primary supplier of munitions and vehicles to the Earth Alliance. Because of his position he held great power within the Alliance and was recently appointed as a member of the Alliance ruling council. But his true power came from the fact that he was the leader of Blue Cosmos, a terror organization that publicly advocated for the destruction of all Coordinators in the name of environmental protection. The organization had people infiltrating almost every level of the government and military. While Azrael had no military rank he was still Richard's superior because he had control over those that were. Richard was a member of the Combat Coordinator Program which consisted of Coordinators that were serving in the Atlantic Federation military and under the control of Blue Cosmos influenced officers. Richard had recently been taking orders directly from Azrael and fulfilling some of his personal missions. One such assignment had been the eradication of a rebel group operating against the Alliance in the United States of South America. Another had been the assassination of the leader of an anti-war Zaft sympathetic group advocating for a peaceful end to the war. He hated this man with every fiber of his being and had even considered killing him. But as long as he served in the Combat Coordinator Program and followed orders his family would be safe.

"Good performance out their today Lieutenant," he said. "Though you could have done a lot better, you let a large number of their Mobile Suit get away."

"I will endeavor to improve, sir."

"Good, see that you do. Now I have another assignment for you."


	2. Genesis

Phase-01

Genesis

1800 Hours

August 7, C.E. 53

GARM R&D research facility

Mendel Colony, L4

Captain Matthew Onasi entered the lobby of the GARM R&D research facility. He talked briefly with the receptionist who gave him a visitor Id-badge and allowed him into the building. He did not need any directions he knew where to go. He had visited the facility many times over the last few years. Officially know as the Genetic-Advanced-

Reproductive-Medical-Research & Development, it was one of the first and most successful genetic engineering companies located here at the Mendel Colony. It was easily that biggest producer of Coordinators in the world.

Coordinators were the very subject he was here to discuss. It was a hot political topic right now. Several in the Atlantic Federation government wanted to restrict the production of Coordinators. And on the political fringes you had Blue Cosmos. Ever since George Glenn revealed his secret to the world back in C.E. 15 the Environmental group turned Terror Organization who advocated for the complete eradication of all Coordinators, had been causing a tremendous amount of trouble. In C.E. 17 they set fire to a hospital in Chicago that was illegally creating Coordinators. And in the past thirty-six years hundreds of Coordinators and the Scientists who made them were brutally murdered. And what did the Government do about it, nothing! Sure they punished the actual murderers, but they did nothing to dismantle the organization as a whole. Many in the military were thinking about using Coordinators as weapons. He had come here in his civilian clothes instead of his Navy uniform to avoid a possible controversy. Despite this a large number of the country's population were still moderates on the issue or were sympathetic to Coordinators.

Matthew remembered when George Glenn had returned with the alien fossil Evidence 01 that he had discovered in the vicinity of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Matthew had been twelve at the time and he had developed a fixation with space. He spent endless hours watching news coverage of the examination of Evidence 01 at the research colony Zodiac. He had also watched the coverage of the Palestine Conference a gathering of the world's religious authorities to come to a conclusion on Evidence 01; they could not come to any. With this event tolerance for Coordinators began to spread and restrictions on their development were removed. The result was the Coordinator boom, an explosion of Coordinator births. Before only the very wealthy and influential could have their children illegally and secretly become Coordinators. Now with affordable Genetic Engineering techniques and technology most of the general populace could have their children turned into Coordinators. The estimated Coordinator population now exceeded fifteen million. Matthew and his family were sympathetic to the plight of Coordinators and had been actively advocating for tolerance and acceptance of Coordinators. When the restrictions on Coordinators were removed his family had celebrated, it was a dream come true. But now Blue Cosmos was trying to shatter that dream, he would not let them. They had already tried to kill him twice, both times they had failed and he had personally killed the bastards who tried to kill him. Matthew wasn't a murderer but Blue Cosmos deserved no mercy, given the chance he would kill everyone in the organization.

In C.E. 30, the same year as the Palestine Conference, the space industry had exploded into a success and several space colonies were created at L4, including the Mendel colony. Almost every nation had space colonies; even the small country of the Orb Union had its own colony Heliopolis at L3, they even had their own Mass Driver. But the space industry was not only for peaceful purposes. Five years later the Atlantic Federation had developed a lunar base in the Ptolemaeus Crater, and unveiled their first series of Mobile Armors. The world was outraged; the Atlantic Federation had violated several international agreements that prohibited the weaponization of space. A space arms race began between, the Atlantic Federation, the Eurasian Federation, and the Republic of East Asia, the three superpowers of the world. The Eurasian Federation had created the space base Artemis out of a captured asteroid and positioned it at L3. George Glenn's mission to Jupiter had been an inspiration for Matthew to join the Navy in the hopes that he could one day serve in space in the Atlantic Federation's Federal Space Force (FSF).

In C.E. 38 George Glenn had developed a new concept of space colony while working at the Zodiac research colony, he presented the concept to the three superpowers. The Big Three saw the potential benefits of these new colonies and decided to fund their development. They were made at L5 and in six years the first ten were completed. They were called PLANT's, Productive-Location-Ally on-Nexus-Technology (PLANT). They served as large-scale production sites. Making and researching new technologies and radical concepts in the fields of science, mathematics, history, and political science. They also became major centers of production of manufactured goods and energy that were exported to Earth. To help ensure the PLANT's loyalty they were strictly prohibited from producing one thing, food. The PLANT's are required to import their food entirely from Earth. This created a feeling of mistrust for the Big Three from the PLANT citizens, who were mostly Coordinators. The PLANT sponsor nations reaped enormous profits from the PLANT's, so they ordered the construction of more. Even today they were still building more of them.

Unfortunately the good times never last for long. As the first generation of Coordinators reached maturity they began to excel in every scientific, artistic, and athletic field. This caused a rift to form between Naturals and Coordinators. Naturals viewed Coordinators with envy and jealousy at their abilities, while Coordinators viewed Naturals as inferior beings. Marriages among the first-generation Coordinators produced a purebred second generation, who have inherited their parents' abilities without the need for genetic modification. This caused Blue Cosmos to go on a spree of killings leaving hundreds dead in their wake. Blue Cosmos began to carry out acts of terrorism against the PLANT's. Assassination of elected officials in the PLANT's who were Coordinators and bombings that killed workers while they were constructing the PLANT's. Because the PLANT's are colonies and have no political autonomy and are thoroughly demilitarized, the PLANT's are unable to defend themselves, and the Coordinators living in the PLANT's have become increasingly dissatisfied with Earth rule. In C.E. 50 to obtain autonomy and trading independence for the PLANT's, two Coordinators Siegel Clyne and Patrick Zala formed the political organization known as the Zodiac Alliance. They began working to abolish food production restrictions and secure self-defense rights for the PLANT's, but their efforts have been suppressed by the Big Three. As a result the Zodiac Alliance went underground. And this very year a PLANT Supreme Council was formed, made up of representatives from each of the PLANT city clusters. But easily the most shocking event was the assassination of George Glenn. Back in June while he was in a crowded street at the Zodiac research colony a man shot him. He had been rushed to a hospital, unfortunately the extent of his injury was too severe and he died at the age of 69. It was a tragedy that the entire world felt. The funeral had received massive media coverage; Matthew had in fact recorded the funeral and was planning on showing his children and grandchildren one day. The investigation of the gunman revealed that he had participated in numerous Anti-Coordinator rallies and had Blue Cosmos connections. While Blue Cosmos had never been proven to be linked to the assassination, it increased the gulf of suspicion and distrust between Naturals and Coordinators.

As he walked from the lobby into the hallway that ran the length of the facility he saw many things of interest. Workers moving carts of electrical equipment into labs, rooms filled with clients who were learned about genetic engineering options for their children, and the rooms where Coordinators were made. He came upon his destination, a plain brown wooden door with the number 131 engraved on the wall next to it. He knocked on the door twice. A mans voice came in reply, "Enter". Matthew opened the door and stepped into the room. Inside were a man and a woman both were wearing white lab coats. They appeared to be in the middle of an argument, the looks on their faces quickly changed as he entered the room.

"Matthew right on schedule as always, we were just talking about you."

"Ulen it's good to see you my friend." It was his friend Dr. Ulen Hibiki the chief researcher here at GARM R&D. They had met at a pro-Coordinator conference that had been hosted by George Glenn several years ago and they had been friends ever since. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No we were just having a minor disagreement no problems, right?" he asked turning toward his wife Via.

"Yes, just a minor disagreement," she said halfheartedly. She turned toward Matthew and asked, "How is Sarah?"

"She's fine, I'll tell her you said hello."

She got up out of the chair she was sitting in and started to leave. Just before she shut the she said to her husband, "This discussion is not over." With that she closed the door; Matthew heard her footsteps as she left.

Ulen leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh of frustration. "So my friend what brings you here today, are you here to discuss my proposal or is this just social call."

"I was able to get it, serial number 009127-PX if I remember correctly."

"You have a good memory, how were you able to get it?"

"It helps when you're father is one of the Atlantic Federation's top scientists. But it wasn't free; I had to tell him to get it Ulen."

"Can he be trusted Matt? A lot is riding on the continued secrecy of the project."

"Don't worry he wont tell anyone, in fact he was quite intrigued by your experiment and is curious to see if you succeed."

Dr. Hibiki's experiment was to produce the perfect Coordinator. An Ultimate Coordinator who's every attribute could be scientifically controlled before birth. Although normal Coordinators are mentally and physically superior to ordinary humans, their embryonic development is still affected by the environment of the mother's body. This sometimes resulted in affected genes reverting back to their previous unaltered condition. And in more extreme cases it caused the mother's body to reject the fetus, which led to its quick death. To eliminate this variable, Ulen developed an artificial womb that the fetus could survive in until their development was complete. Thus far none of his test subjects have survived. Ulen had asked Matthew for assistance in retrieving a critical component, compound 009127-PX. 009127-PX was a compound that had properties very similar to the fluid of the womb. The difference was that 009127-PX was much stronger, providing better nourishment to the fetus. Ulen was hoping that this compound would provide his test subjects with a greater chance for survival. The problem was that 009127-PX was highly experimental and was restricted until it was proven to be completely safe. Only a handful of scientists could get their hands on it. Matthew had asked his father Daniel Onasi who was an important scientist in the Atlantic Federation if he could get a sample of it so that Ulen could replicate it. When Matthew had first learned about Ulen's experiments he was shocked by his friend's actions. How he had rationalized the deaths of hundreds of unborn children in the name of science and progress. Matthew was originally going to reveal his experiments to the government but Ulen had talked him out of it. He said that if he could create an Ultimate Coordinator that perhaps it give mankind a goal to strife for leading to greater tolerance and rights for Coordinators.

"Well hopefully with this compound we should be able to work around our past mistakes."

"Mistakes! Over a hundred of your 'Test Subjects' are dead Ulen. How dare you call them mistakes! If there's anything here that is a mistake it's your little science project."

"I apologize, I promise not to use that word again."

"Fine."

"When can you get it to me?"

"First things first Ulen, I need to know are you absolutely sure that this will help you succeed. I will not have any innocent blood on my hands."

"I am absolutely sure this will work, the problem with the previous subjects was that they were not strong enough to survive in the artificial environment. I am positive that 009127-PX will give them the strength they need to survive."

"Alright then if you're sure, but this is going to cost you."

"Anything, just name it and it's yours."

"I just found out that my wife is pregnant."

"Congratulations Matt," he let out a soft chuckle, "You will never believe it but my wife is also pregnant, with twins. What are the odds of that!"

"Congratulations Ulen, I am happy for you."

"So what does that have do with my experiment?"

"I want my child to be a part of your program."

A nervous look appeared on his face. "Are you sure about this, as you know there are risks involved."

"I know but I have the utmost faith in both your abilities and the compound. You won't let me down."

"Thanks Matt, I appreciate your vote of confidence. Alright I'll do it and I promise to do everything in my power to see that your child survives. Because your child will not be the only one at risk, I was planning on using one of my children to test the compound."

"Really are you sure Ulen."

"Yes I'm sure, we are in this together if you're willing to risk your child's life then the least I can do is risk mine. When can you have wife and the compound arrive?"

"They're already on there way, they should arrive here in a few days if their shuttle does experience any problems."

"Alright then we have an agreement." Ulen held out his hand which Matthew grabbed and firmly shaked. "And Matt thank you, I won't let you down."

************

It was time, after nine long months it was time. Matthew had been able to get some leave so he could be here when it happened. He and his wife Sarah had already agreed to name their son Richard. Both Richard and Ulen's son had survived. Matthew had barely entered the colony when he received a call from Sarah telling him it was time. He had grabbed a cab and rushed over to the facility. He quickly got through the lobby and walked briskly toward the room. Ulen, Via, and the rest of his staff were all scrubbed up and ready for the procedure. Ulen was the first to greet him, "Matt you made it."

"Are you kidding I wouldn't miss for the world." He walked over to Sarah and said to her, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, a little anxious though. I have never seen an artificial birth before."

"No one has," said Ulen. "None of the children were able to survive the artificial womb; this is the very first artificial birth in the history of mankind."

The artificial womb opened and the amniotic sac broke. Fluid spilled out onto the floor. As Ulen stepped toward the machine the child began to cry. He said, "I am now going to cut the umbilical cord." With that he grabbed the appropriate instrument and promptly cut it off. One of his assistants handed him a towel, which he used to clean the remaining fluid off the baby. With another towel he wrapped the boy up and handed it to Sarah saying, "Congratulations Sarah, it's a boy."

As soon as he was in his mothers arms he stopped crying. It was as if he knew that she was his mother. She held him close to her. Matthew stepped closer to get a good look at his son. His eyes were a perfect shade of hazel and the hair that he had appeared to be brown. He looked a lot like Daniel.

Ulen stepped closer and said, "Sarah if alright with you we need to do some tests on your son. We need to be sure everything is alright."

"That's fine, but in just a minute. I want to savor this moment while I can."

"Okay I'll come back in a minute."

After a few minutes Ulen grabbed a camera and said "Can I get a photo of the new family."

"Yes, but only if you both are in it," said Matthew as he pointed to Ulen and Via.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, this would not be possible without either of you. Besides I consider you two as family, now get over here and smile."

Ulen handed the camera to one of his assistants, he and Via then gathered around Richard.

The man said, "Say cheese!!!"

"Cheese!!!"

With that the picture was taken. And the man gave them a thumbs up said, "Perfect."

"Alright I got to take the child to be examined now." Ulen motioned for Sarah to hand Richard to him, which she did. He placed him in a cart and one of his staff wheeled him away. "Matt could I talk to you in private."

"Sure." He said to his wife, "I'll be back in a minute." He kissed her and then followed after Ulen.

They walked back into Ulen's office and sat down in the wooden chairs. They sat their in silence for a few minutes until his phone rang. He put it on speaker phone and said, "Yes?"

"Dr. Hibiki we are sending you the preliminary data."

"Thank you, continue with your examination" He hung up the phone and looked over the data on his computer. After he was finished he then reached into his desk and retrieved a silver case. He opened it and produced two cigars and a match box. He offered one to Matthew, which he initially refused.

"No thanks, I've been trying to cut back."

"You sure Matt their Cuban, besides we're celebrating"

Matthew considered this and accepted the cigar and a match. He lit his cigar and took in a puff and said, "Very nice. So tell me what the initial results were."

"It was a complete success; all of the altered genes took. As you requested he has brown hair, hazel eyes, and will be athletically and academically inclined."

"Good job Ulen, by the way how is your son?"

"Good he should be born within a day or two, same goes for his sister."

"Have you worked out any names yet?"

"Yes we are going to name the boy Kira and the girl Cagalli."

"Beautiful names, they were Via's idea right?"

"Yeah I didn't get much of a choice on that one."

"Well it didn't help that you removed your son from her womb and put him in the program against her wishes."

"I tried to make her understand that it was all for scientific progress."

"Scientific progress! Ulen the inventors of the atomic bomb did so for the sake of 'Scientific progress' and look what that got them. Some of histories worst atrocities were carried out by people who had only the best of intentions. I don't want to leave here worrying that you accidentally created a monster. And speaking of 'Scientific progress' I did some research and I learned something that I hope is not true. It has to do with a past client of yours a wealthy politician by the name of Al Da Flaga. The records state that seven years ago a Rau La Flaga was born here at GARM R&D. The birth records states that his father is Al Da Flaga, but there is no mother listed on the record would you care to explain that? And would you care to explain why over the last few years he has been making routine donations to GARM R&D."

"I can explain. I…..I needed the money so I could fund my research into the artificial womb. And he approached me with a business proposition. It seemed harmless; I thought no one would figure it out."

"Please tell me you didn't do it Ulen."

"And it was a scientific challenge that no scientist could resist. So I did it, I cloned Al Da Flaga."

"Why?"

"Many reasons for the money, for the challenge, but ultimately I did it just to see if I could."

"Ulen I don't think you have realize the severity of your crime. There are huge ethical reasons why this is wrong. If it gets out that you successfully clone a human being, terrible things could happen. The wealthy might use them for nothing more than spare parts, harvesting the clone's organs when the original needs replacements. The Government might use them as slaves. And the Military might use them as expendable soldiers, which could be easily replaced by simply making more. And the list goes on. These are reasons why cloning is illegal. And I can't believe that you of all people did it simply to see if you could."

"I did it to expand mankind's knowledge, to solve the mystery of whether or not a clone can have a soul. Is that so wrong?"

"Ulen some mysteries are better left unsolved." Matthew leaned back in his chair and sighed and said, "Look Ulen you're my friend, and sometimes people make bad mistakes. But I am not going to condemn you for that. I'm not going to alert this to the authorities. But only if you promise me one thing. "

"Anything Matt, you name it and it's yours."

"You will never clone another human being again, understood?"

"Understood."

"Very well then, I shall keep this silent. But know this, nothing good will ever come from this. I sense that this child, 'Rau La Flaga' will only prove to be a disastrous problem for humanity. Let's hope I'm wrong."


	3. Exodus

Phase-02

Exodus

1650 Hours

October 20, C.E. 56

San Diego, California

Atlantic Federation

After finishing today's paperwork Commodore Matthew Onasi walked to his car, a simple blue '54' General Motors Bolt, he opened the driver side door on the left side of the car got in and started the electric engine. He drove to the exit of the San Diego Naval base. Once he arrived at the gate he showed his ID to the guard on duty. After inspecting the identification he opened the gate and said, "Have a good day sir."

"Thank you Petty Officer."

He then drove the car into the city. He pushed a button and the car's radio activated, a female English accented voice began to pour out from speakers. _"Now for today's top story, the estimated death toll of the Type S2 Influenza outbreak has risen to over twenty-three million. The areas hit the hardest by the virus include the African continent as well as Central and Southern America due to their poor living conditions. Scientist's are confounded by the mutation of Type S Influenza and have yet to yield any probable theories into the cause of the diseases mutation. But with the introduction of the new S2 vaccine developed by Februarius City in the PLANTs the disease is expected to die out soon. Despite this many on Earth are critical of the use of the PLANT created vaccine. Nathan Ashkenazi leader of the Blue Cosmos affiliated extremist group Holy Land had this to say." _

"_My brothers this disease is God's divine judgment upon mankind. We have allowed the genetic tampering of our species to go on for too long! Through genetic engineering we have strayed from God's intended design of humanity. We foolishly believed that we could play God! It is time, to arms my brothers! We must act as God's Divine Sword and strike down the Coordinators, those abominations must be purged from this world. Once we have exterminated every single last Coordinator from this world God will forgive us of our grievous sin and bless this world transforming it into a true Holy Land!" _

"_In other news U.N. officials met today in New York City to discuss the Issue of Torino Protocol. Already many of the Earth nations have adopted the protocol that prohibits genetic modification of any kind upon the face of the world. But many anti-Coordinator groups believe that the Protocol does not go far enough and are calling for the current Protocol to be amended. Demanding the forced sterilization of the Coordinator population on both Earth and in the Colonies, and that the Protocol be enacted in the few remaining countries that refuse to practice it. The governments of both the Orb Union and the Kingdom of Scandinavia have publicly condemned the Torino Protocol and have refused to acknowledge it as a legitimate international law. The burning of both nations flags was present at the many rallies held by Blue Cosmos this week in protest of both countries statements. Bruno Azrael the leader of Blue Cosmos made this statement Tuesday…."_

Matthew turned off the radio and scowled, he had heard enough. The world was falling apart. After nearly two decades of peace and tolerance for Coordinators, Blue Cosmos was once again gaining the support of the world. And it was all the result of bad timing, the outbreak of the mutant S2 strain of Influenza happened at the worst possible time. Only one year after the assassination of George Glenn it was the worst plague in modern history. Many on Earth believed that it was Coordinators who caused the mutation of the virus to avenge George Glenn's death. And the fact that there were no documented cases of the disease in the PLANTs only strengthened that belief.

As Matthew drove down the streets of San Diego a poster on a building caught his eye. It was a plain white piece of paper with large black and bolded letters that read, "Death to all Patchworkers". "Patchworker", was a derogative term among Naturals for Coordinators a reference to their "patchwork" DNA. He then noticed that this poster was on every street corner. This spoke volumes about anti-Coordinator sentiment here in the Atlantic Federation.

Things were not going well for his family either. There had been more attacks on the whole Onasi family. Matthew's younger brother John had been shot by a member of Holy Land; fortunately John had survived the attack. And just last month at a pro-Coordinator rally in which his wife and two sons had attended, had been attacked by Blue Cosmos. The attack's intended target was his family, which was not a surprise.

During the final years of the A.D. era the Onasi family had become very wealthy and influential in the Atlantic Federation. But it was his father Daniel who brought real power to the family. Daniel had been a scientist in the employ of the former United States of America. During the Reconstruction War when the Atlantic Federation was formed, he had developed advanced weapons technology for the military. He had created the linear guns that replaced the AF's tanks old weapons. A linear gun was a weapon which, like a railgun, uses electromagnetic forces rather than gunpowder to fire its projectiles. However, unlike a railgun the conductive projectiles fired from a linear gun do not come into physical contact with the firing mechanism, and are instead accelerated using attractive and repulsive magnetic forces. This caused the acceleration produced by the gun to be relatively small compared to that of a railgun, although a linear gun can yield similar muzzle velocities if its barrel is long enough. But an advantage of this is the fact that the lack of physical contact eliminates friction heat and wear on the barrel, making it less likely for it to fall apart in any single battle. Linear guns are used by the AF's, as well as many other nations', current series of tanks and mobile armors. Daniel had also worked on a number of other important projects throughout the years, such as the creation of the first Mobile Armor. He was regarded by many as a national hero.

His family also had a long history of military and public service, many family members both past and present had served in the military and the government, first in the US and then the AF. The Onasi's were also highly conservative and religious, upholding family values and advocating for the end of abortion. All of this combined together had made the family well liked and respected in the AF. When the debate on genetic engineering started everyone had expected the Onasi family to stand in the anti-Coordinator camp. But to the world's surprise and to the bitter disappointment of others, the Onasi family had advocated for the freedom to choose whether or not ones children could be Coordinators or not.

This action had caused groups like Blue Cosmos to brand them as traitors to humanity, and made them a priority target. While none of his family had died from these attacks, it instilled fear in them. And in response to the recent attacks on John and his immediate family, his relatives had called for a meeting to be held at his home to discuss the issue.

After about another twenty minutes of driving he arrived at the family estate. The land had been bought by Matthew's grandfather who had built a three story Victorian style mansion upon it. The whole estate was walled and had a sealed gate. He, John, and his second brother Michael had been raised here just as their Father had been. Now he and his family had taken up residence in the estate. He drove up to the gate and entered the combination onto a nearby keypad to open it.

As he pulled into the large garage next to the house he noticed that there were only three vehicles currently parked there. He looked over them, his wife's car, John's car, and Michael's car. The others had not arrived yet. He was surprised; his family was hardly ever late for anything. He exited the vehicle and began to walk toward the front door. He was greeted by a pair of marine NCO's that were standing at both sides of the door. They came to attention and saluted as soon as they saw him. He returned the salute and asked the one on the right, "Were there any problems today?"

"No sir."

"Very well thank you corporal."

With that said he opened the front door and walked in. This was getting ridicules; he had ten well trained marines in his house! Rear Admiral Hill, who was a family friend, had tried to convince him to have his family move onto the base so they could be safer. Matthew had refused, he wanted his children to grow up in a normal home not on a military base. The Admiral eventually agreed to let him live at the estate, but on the condition that a squad of marines guard it. So for the last month they were sharing the estate grounds with them. The only problem was that they kept constant surveillance on them. Not allowing them to be in any of the rooms without at least one marine with them. The only rooms they did not go in were the bedrooms and bathrooms.

A positive of the situation was that the squad leader was his best friend, marine captain Andrew Black. He had persuaded Admiral Hill to allow Andy to lead the squad. He had met Andy back when he was in elementary school. When his grandfather had passed away, his dad moved the family into the estate. This caused Matthew to start second grade at a new school. He at first made no friends and was left alone by the other children. One day after school while he was waiting for his father to pick him up, he noticed Andy was in a fight with a group of three fourth graders. Andy was a more skilled fighter than them and initially did well, but was overwhelmed by their greater size and numbers.

Seeing that none of the teachers were around he ran over toward the fight and began to shout for them to stop. This made had made them laugh and they simply went back to beating the crap out of Andy. Realizing that they could not be reasoned with, he ran toward them and punched the nearest one in the nose causing it to bleed.

After about twenty minutes the scuffle ended when a teacher came out of one of the buildings. The three fourth graders scattered and vanished into the nearby apartment complex. Together he and Andy had kicked their asses; of course they were not in much better shape. They both had received numerous bruises and were bleeding in several places; Andy had lost one of his teeth. After they had been patched up by the school nurse they were put in the school office until their parents arrived. While they waited he asked what started the fight. Andy had replied by opening his hand and showing the single silver coin that was in it. At first he thought it was pretty stupid to be fighting over such a small and insignificant thing. Until he realized that it was an old US quarter, quite a valuable find. After this incident they became best friends and had always had each other's backs.

When they had both enrolled into their respective OCS's, he had asked Andy why he chose the marines. Ever since the end of the Reconstruction War the need for traditional infantry had dropped, there were only a few remaining battalions in service. He had answered that he wanted to participate in infantry combat, something he could never do if he had joined the navy, and if joined the army he would likely be assigned to a tank corps. The marines were the only service branch that did any significant amount of infantry combat.

Matthew had been promoted to Commodore, for his recent actions in defeating a space pirate faction while serving in the 3rd Orbital Fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Hill. The Navy had wanted him to continue serving in the FSF; they even offered him his own fleet. But when he missed the birth of his second son Luke, he had requested for a transfer to the San Diego Naval Base. His superiors had granted the request, but he could tell they were disappointed by his decision. Now he had an insignificant desk job, it was their petty revenge.

As he closed the door behind him he saw his son Richard walking down the stairs toward him. "Dad your home." He ran over and hugged his father.

"How was your day Rich," asked Matthew after his son let go of him.

"It was good, I learned more math and I read the book you gave me this morning."

"You finished it?"

"Yes father."

Matthew had given his son C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to read before he left for work today. The fact that his son had already finished it was somewhat of a shock.

"Well then I'll have to give the rest of the series for you to read. But I think you have worked enough for today, why don't you go on and play some video games."

"Thanks dad."

With that Richard ran off to play an old antique that had been in the family for several generations, a Nintendo Wii.

Once again Matthew was shocked at his son's quick development. He had started to walk when he was only six months old and talking six months later. When he was one year old he had learned to read. And three months ago they had begun to teach him basic math and grammar. He was at least a head taller than the other children in his age group. He was a rare sight even among Coordinator children.

Ulen would have been amazed by Richard's progress. Unfortunately his friend would never know. Only a year ago as a result of the Type S2 Influenza outbreak the GARM R&D research facility at the Mendel colony was attacked by an armed group which claimed to be Blue Cosmos. The attackers burned the facility down after entering and killing all the scientists inside. Matthew was convinced that group had been searching for Kira. It was the only logical conclusion for the attack. They were trying to kill the Ultimate Coordinator's, meaning somehow they knew about the project. This made Matthew fear for his own son's life. Via Hibiki had entrusted their children to the care of her sister and brother-in-law, Caridad and Haruma Yamato. They lived in Orb Union so he knew the children were safe. He had been in contact with them since the funeral. They had informed him of the deal they had worked out with the Uzumi Nara Athha. The Orb nobleman would take care of Cagalli for them while they raised Kira. Caridad had told him in a recent communication that they were thinking of moving to Copernicus city on the moon.

He again heard the sound of somebody coming down the stairs. He looked up and saw Andy and Sarah coming down the stairs. Sarah was carrying Luke, who was asleep in her arms. "Matt how was your day."

"It was just wonderful. You know how much I love filling out paperwork. How was yours."

"Good," she said ignoring his obvious sarcasm. "I taught Richard some math and took care of Luke. Andy here was a huge help."

"Hey it's the least I can do I know it's not easy having us in your home," Andy replied. "Hopefully soon the situation will change and everything will go back to normal."

"Are John and Michael here?"

"Yeah they're up stairs in the study."

"Good hopefully we will be able to start the meeting soon."

Matthew went up the stairs to the third story; he was followed by Andy and Sarah. Once there he walked down the hall to the family study and opened the door. Inside were his brothers John and Michael, who were playing a game of poker.

"You're bluffing, you have nothing."

"You sure about that? I just raised you five hundred."

"You're bluffing," John repeated, "And I'll prove it." John put down his hand revealing a straight. "Beat that Mike."

"Alright I will." He showed his cards, he had a royal flush! He grabbed the pile of chips off the table. He chuckled to himself and said, "You never could beat me at anything." He turned toward the open and took notice of Matt. "Hey Matt when did you get here."

"Just a few minutes ago. I see you haven't kicked that gambling addiction yet."

"I'm working on it, geez mind your own business for a change Matt."

"John how is your wound?"

"It's healing up really quickly, my wife is still rather shaken up about it."

Andy put his hand up to his headset and said, "Ok let them in."

"What is it?"

"The others have arrived."

They had been waiting for his cousins Alice and Will, and his uncle Zack. Now that the others had arrived the meeting could begin. This meeting was only between the Onasi family's prominent members.

John was in the Atlantic Federation Navy and held the rank of captain. He had recently been in command of the Nimitz, a Tarawa class aircraft carrier that was tasked with patrolling the Bering Strait watching for any Eurasian ships that might try to enter the AF's territory. He had been stationed at the Alaskan Defense Headquarters until he had also requested for a transfer to San Diego when his first son Mark was born.

Michael was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. He was an ace pilot in his F-7C Spearhead. He had a horrible gambling addiction. Matthew and John were always bailing him out when he got himself in trouble or owed money. He was the only member of Matthew's immediate family who was still single.

Alice was a first generation Coordinator who had been born secretly before the first Coordinator ban had been lifted. She was a member of the Atlantic Federation Senate, though she was not very likely to be reelected with current hatred toward Coordinators. She had been very instrumental in the removal of the first Coordinator ban and her work for equal rights for all Coordinators had gained her international recognition.

Will was a medical doctor who specialized in biochemistry and molecular biology. His skill was so revered that during Type S2 Influenza outbreak, the Februarius city disease control center had asked for his help. He had been instrumental in the creation of the vaccine.

And finally there was his uncle Zack. Zack was a member of the board of directors of Actaeon Industries a major international munitions company that rivaled the Orb Union's Morgenroete Inc. He was a source of money that the Onasi family had used over the years to fund their pro-Coordinator campaign.

"Good then we can begin."

************

"That is unacceptable, you cannot be serious," said Matt. "You are suggesting we take the entire family and leave the country." It had been only twenty minutes into the meeting when Alice proposed this ludicrous idea.

"Yes, it is no longer safe for us here," replied Alice.

The Will nodded in agreement and Zack just sat there in silent thought.

"If we leave then it will be a sign of weakness to our enemies. It would be like giving up."

"But we cannot stay here either. Things are getting out of control. Just the other day a group of teenagers set my car on fire. They were shouting Blue Cosmos slogans. Those bastards are indoctrinating the nation's youth with hatred, hatred for Coordinators. We cannot raise our children in this environment it would be completely irresponsible."

"This is our homeland, our homeland Alice! Our family fought for this great nation in the Reconstruction War. It was my Father who gave our military the edge it needed to defeat our enemies. We fought for so long for the equal rights of Coordinators. And you want us to just give up and leave."

"We can still fight the good fight Matt, but from a safe location."

"Where could we go? We cannot go to Eurasia; the Russians hate Coordinators just as much as Blue Cosmos does. And the Republic of Asia won't do anything that might draw the hostility of Blue Cosmos toward them. The South African Union is merely a puppet of our government, so moving there would be pointless."

"We can go to the Orb Union Matt. They have no discrimination toward Coordinators; it would be a perfect place for Richard and the other Coordinators in our family to grow up."

"Hang on a minute," John interjected. "We are going behind my father's back. He should be apart of any discussion about the family immigrating to another nation."

"John, you know as well as I do that he will never go for it. He was here before the Atlantic Federation was formed. He will never approve of leaving the country. But this is too important to simply ignore. I would like to bring it to a vote."

"Very well then," Matt replied. "All those in favor of leaving the Atlantic Federation raise your right hand. All against raise your left hand."

Alice and Will both raised their right hands simultaneously. Matthew, John, and Michael all raised their left. Zack sat there for a moment and eventually raised his right hand. It was an even split. Unfortunately it takes a majority opinion to decide a course of action. And without Daniel present it would take four votes to approve the motion.

"Motion defeated. Now can we move on to other business?"

************

Five hours later a plain white van pulled over to the side of the road. It came to a stop and the five occupants looked out toward the mansion before them. "This is the place," announced the driver.

"Alright everyone get your gear together we are only going to get one shot at this. It is finally time to kill those traitors. But remember our primary target is the boy."

The men all nodded in acknowledgement as they loaded their weapons and slid grenades on their vests.

"Hopefully our mole will take care of that but if he fails it will be up to us. What do we do this for?!"

"We do this for the preservation of our blue and pure world!!"

The leader gestured to the driver. He accelerated toward the gate and rammed through.

************

Matthew and the rest of the family were heading down the stairs and had reached the second story when they heard the crash. They ran down to ground floor and heard gunfire from outside. Matt heard the cries of both the door guards as they were killed. The remaining eight marines began to receive orders from their CO. "Jackson and Andrews go help the others. Baker and Patterson your with me we'll secure the upper levels. The rest of you stay here and protect the others." They all jumped to their assigned tasks. Andy led his group up the stairs.

The two marines that he had assigned to help the guards outside were just about to open the door down when it was destroyed by an explosion. The one closest to the door died instantly and the second was lying on the ground severely wounded. Several grenades landed on the floor in front of the group. Matthew, John, and Michael pushed the other members of their family to ground to avoid the full force of the blast. As Matthew looked around he saw that none of his group was injured. The marines had not been as fortunate. One of the four had been blown to pieces and another suffered wounds from shrapnel and was on belly up on the ground. The two marines still standing were firing through the doorway. Matthew grabbed a 9mm pistol from one of dead marines and checked it. Once he was satisfied that it would still work and was loaded he clicked the safety off. He ran to a window and looked outside.

The gate had been unhinged and was nearby on the ground. A white van that he guessed was the cause of the gates removal was parked several feet away. He saw three men in ski masks and armed with an uzi and two assault rifles firing from behind the safety of the van. The window to his left shattered and another attacker jumped through. The man aimed his assault rifle at Matthew, but was stopped when Michael jumped him and forced the man to the ground. Mike slammed his fist into the man's face and knocked him unconscious. Grabbing the fallen weapon he peered outside from the broken window searching for a target. Unfortunately another of the gunmen was waiting at the same window and fired a full automatic burst from his rifle into Mike's chest.

"Mike!!!!!!!!!!" cried Matthew as he fell to the ground. He sprinted to the window and fired half a clip of ammo into man. He rushed over to Mike and found that he was already dead. Filled with feelings of rage and sorrow he grabbed a grenade from the vest of the unconscious attacker on the floor. He then ran to the window and chucked the captured grenade at van. It rolled underneath and exploded. A secondary explosion occurred and he heard the screams of the attackers. The van must have run on gasoline, a strange thing when petroleum products were scarce these days.

The marines outside ran up to burning remains of the vehicle and called out "Clear!" confirming the kills. Matthew then heard the muffled sound of gunfire from the above him. They had breached the upper levels. How had they managed that? "Stay here and guard the prisoner," ordered Matt to the two surviving marines. Matt and John then began to ascend the stairs to the second story as quickly as they could manage. Matt had a dreadful feeling that something horrible had just happened.

************

Andy had just reached the second story when he heard the explosion from below. But he knew he could not help them. He had his job and they had theirs. "Baker and Patterson go secure Luke, I'll handle Richard."

"Yes sir."

Andy headed down the hallway until he arrived at the Richard's bedroom door. He opened it to find Richard standing behind it.

"What's happening Captain Black, is it another attack?"

"Yes it is, don't worry Rich my squad will protect your family or die trying."

"Why are they trying to kill us? We didn't do anything wrong!"

Andy just stood there silently unsure how to answer him. He was about to say something when he heard gunshots from down the hallway. They were coming from Luke's room. That was impossible; there was no way that the enemy had breached the second story. He heard someone outside the door. Andy readied his weapon and was prepared to fire until he saw Patterson come through the door.

"Corporal what happened?"

"The enemy broke through the bedroom's window; they killed Baker and Luke sir."

Andy turned around to find a look of utter shock on Richard's face. Andy walked over to comfort him when a sudden thought stuck him.

"Patterson how did they…." He was cut off by the sound of three gunshots. He felt intense pain and then fell flat on the floor.

"You ****ing traitor…"

"You're the traitor here captain, you and the Onasi's were betraying the human race to the Coordinators. We will soon exterminate the freaks so that the Earth will be safeguarded for all of true humanity."

Andy tried to reach for his gun but he realized that he had dropped it when he was shot. It was just barely out of his reach. He then heard Patterson reload his weapon.

"Any last words traitor?"

Andy noticed motion near his gun. He smiled as he said "I was about to ask you same thing."

"What's that suppose to …." Patterson's response was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. A full clip of 9mm rounds tore into his upper body. His body was pushed backward until it landed in a bloody heap on the floor.

Andy struggled to get into a sitting position. Once he had achieved this he turned to look at Richard. He saw the young child was holding the gun in his hands. After a few seconds he fell to his knees and the gun fell from his hands. Tears were streaming from down from his eyes.

Andy was forced to turn his attention elsewhere when he heard the sound of footfalls coming from the hallway. His gun was much closer than before and he was able to grab it. Fighting back the pain he was able to reload and pointed the weapon toward the doorway. He was prepared to fire but stopped when heard Matt's voice calling out to him. "In here!"

His friend heard him and entered the room with John close behind him. "O my God Andy!" He ran over and helped him up. "What happened?"

"It was Patterson he was working with the attackers. Matt I think he killed Luke."

Upon hearing this Matt ran out of the room and toward Luke's bedroom. After about a minute he heard his friend's cries of grief.

It was getting harder for him to stay conscious and eventually he gave in and slowly closed his eyes. John still being in the room moved over to help him. "No stay with me Andy, Andy? Andy! Medic!!! I need a Medic in here! Medic!!!!!"

************

"And so we commit to rest Captain Andrew Black. Attention!"

Matthew, John, and all the members of the military present stood at attention and all saluted. The civilians present also came to attention.

The Marine Chaplin continued, "Duty, honor, and self sacrifice. These are the qualities of a soldier, of a marine. Death will never diminish these qualities in Captain Black. His sacrifice will never be forgotten." After he finished he signaled the bugler who began to play taps. Nearby a row of seven Marines in full dress uniforms holding rifles let of a barrage followed by two more, a twenty-one-gun salute in Andy's memory. Another group of Marines folded a flag and presented it to Andy's brother Ian.

"Burial detail dismissed," announced the Chaplain after the song was finished. The funeral ceremony had ended. And people began to disperse from the grave site while others began to converse with each other. Matthew stood there a few minutes beside the casket and remembered all the good times he and his friend had shared. "Goodbye my old friend, may you forever rest in peace."

He walked a few steps away and turned around for one last look. He then continued his walk back to his family. It had been a few weeks since the attack, the worst one his family had ever suffered. Andy, eight of the marine bodyguards, his brother Michael and his infant son Luke had all died. Their funerals had been held earlier this week.

Matthew had briefly interrogated the attacker who they had captured. He found out that it was Blue Cosmos who had ordered the attack. And that a few of the high ranking Blue Cosmos leaders knew about the Ultimate Coordinators. While he did not know how they had learned about the project one thing was for certain they would be after his son. After he had gotten all of the useful information he could out of the man Matthew had killed him. No sense in keeping the bastard alive so that he could be bailed out by his associates.

In light of this information Matthew had changed his position on leaving the country. They were gathering their belongings and preparing to leave. They had chartered a ship to take them and the forty members of his extended family that had also decided to leave. But not everyone had agreed with this. His father Daniel, his brother John, and ten other Onasi family members had decided to stay in the Atlantic Federation.

John was staying so he could take care of their father in case something happened. That and John's enormous sense of patriotism would never allow him to permanently leave the country. Matthew had insisted that John move into the family estate, which he had eventually agreed to.

Matthew was concerned about his son. He was only two years old and he had already killed another man. And his brother, uncle, and friend had just been murdered. Matthew was afraid he might have permanent damage to his psyche. He would be receiving counseling soon.

************

After a few weeks of preparation and travel they had finally made it to the Orb Union. The transport ship was waiting of the coast of the Orb Union's northern most port city. They were waiting for permission from the Orb to enter their port. Matthew had been called up to the bridge by the ship's captain.

The tiny island nation had been formed during the Reconstruction War. Orb was originally a Japanese colony that was settled during the final years of the A.D. era. It was meant to be a site for manufacturing goods that could meet its own energy demands. This would allow Japan to use its oil reserves for other needs, such as national defense. The land was sold to five wealthy families that could develop the islands. These families would later become Orb's five noble families, with the Athha, Sahaku, and Seiran families as the most prominent. When the Reconstruction war began China annexed Japan, which after a few months of resistance surrendered. Many in the former Japanese army and navy that refused to surrender fled to Orb. Also many refugees from around the entire world fled to Orb to escape the horrors of war. This made Orb a multicultural society, although Japanese culture had a much wider impact on the young nation's cultural development. Japanese was the official language; of course most of the population also could also speak English and a variety of other languages.

Orb had refused to be absorbed into the new East Asian bloc and declared its status as an independent nation. China had not liked this answer and had dispatched a fleet to conquer the islands. Under the leadership of the Athha family the ex-Japanese naval fleet was able to repulse the invasion. Ultimately Orb only survived because China was too busy dealing with the United States and Russian navies to send another attack. After the war had ended in C.E. 9 the United Nations had formally recognized the Orb Union as a sovereign nation.

After the war the Athha family had emerged as the heroes of Orb and the most powerful noble family. In an attempt to protect Orb from future conflict the Athha family had instituted its doctrine of neutrality. "_Orb will not attack another nation, will not allow another nation to attack them, and will not intervene in the conflicts of other nations._"

Most notable about Orb was its policy of total nondiscrimination against Coordinators. This made the country highly admired by the PLANTs and it also has enriched Orb's talent pool. This made Orb a considerable industrial and military power despite its small size and lack of natural resources. But it also made them a target for Blue Cosmos and other anti-Coordinator organizations. With the current state of affairs Matthew was concerned that Orb might be attacked by a Blue Cosmos controlled Atlantic Federation.

Matthew arrived at the bridge and entered. "Captain have we received any response from Orb?"

"We received a message from representative Uzumi Nara Athha on behalf of his father the chief representative of Orb. The Orb government has considered your request for asylum and has decided to grant you entrance into the country. We have received permission to dock. He has requested that you meet with him once you disembarked from the ship."

"Very well Captain signal Orb that we acknowledge the message and move us into the harbor." The ship then moved slowly into the harbor and came to a stop as it docked. Matthew felt a huge sense of relief that they had been allowed entrance. He had no idea what they would have done if their request had been rejected. Although he was unsure why the son of the chief representative was coming to meet with him, well there was only way to find out. "Well it looks like I have a meeting to attend. Make sure no one leaves the ship."

"Understood."

And with that Matthew left the bridge and headed to ship's gangway. Hopefully his meeting with the representative would go off without a hitch. And perhaps he could get some of his questions answered.


	4. The Calm Before the Storm

Phase-03

The Calm Before the Storm

1315 Hours

November 6, C.E. 56

Naniwa, Main Island

Orb Union

Matthew looked around the Harbor as he walked down the ship's gangway. He saw several commercial vessels docked. There was a group of dock workers unloading cargo from a nearby freighter; all of them were operating powered exoskeletons. And off in the distance he could see an Orb Union Aegis Class warship slowly heading southwest.

He stepped onto the dock unsure of what to do next. A black limo pulled up and the driver exited the vehicle. He opened the rear door and gestured for him to get in. Matthew complying climbed into the nearest back seat of the vehicle. Once he was seated the door closed and he noticed another man sitting in back.

"You must be Matthew Onasi; I am Representative Uzumi Nara Athha." He held out his to shake which Matthew promptly did. "On behalf of my father the Chief Representative of Orb I welcome you and your family to Orb."

"Thank you Representative Athha, my family is extremely grateful for being allowed into your country."

"My father apologizes for not being able to meet with you personally; he is preoccupied with urgent state matters."

"I understand it is a troubling world we live in these days. May I ask why you are here; I did not expect to meet with any high ranking Orb officials today."

"You are very perceptive Mr. Onasi; very well I will cut to the chase. Because our country refused to adopt the Torino Protocol the Orb Union is now the potential target of anti-Coordinator hostility. Many in the assembly are concerned that our nation may face imminent attack if we do not adopt the Protocol. Blue Cosmos has openly called for the destruction of our nation. We fear that the Republic of East Asia who still opposes our independence, will act upon this. And unfortunately your family immigrating to our country may be seen by some as a defection, creating even more hatred for Orb."

"It is not my family's intention to cause trouble for Orb. The situation would have been the same if we had moved anywhere else."

"We realize that Mr. Onasi and we are sympathetic to your family's plight which is why we are granting your request. But we are going to need your services."

"How so?"

"Orb as you must surely know is devoted to peace. We do not believe in war or conflict. As a result our self defense forces have fallen into poor condition. We have the proper equipment and the necessary amount of troops, but they are not properly trained. We want you to help train our forces. With your combat experience we hope to improve the quality of our defense forces so they can defend our country from any threat."

"Would I be required to join your military?"

"No you won't, we will consider you as a 'Civilian Consultant'."

"Alright then I accept your Government's proposal. When do I start?"

"As soon as you can get your family settled down."

They shook hands and the Representative had the driver open the door for Matthew. He exited the vehicle and began to walk back to the ship. There was a lot of work to do.

************

Two Years Later- C.E. 58

"Dad do I really have to go?"

"Yes you do Richard. Our entire family was invited to the celebration; it would be rude for any of our family to be missing. So please be on your best behavior."

"Yes father."

Richard was struggling to get into his dress clothes. The Onasi family had been invited to a party to celebrate Uzumi Nara Athha's inauguration to Chief Representative of the Orb Union. His father had passed away just three weeks ago.

Once his family was ready he went out to his car and pulled it up next to the door. He looked at their home. Originally they had lived their first few months in a house provided by the Athha's. But once they had settled in Matthew began construction of an estate for his family. It was a mirror image to the one back in San Diego.

After his family entered the vehicle he began to drive to the Athha estate. For the last two years Matthew had been extremely busy. Representative Athha had been right the ODF was in poor condition. Most of its soldiers were young, undisciplined, with absolutely no combat experience. Matt had called in a few favors to get some friends of his who specialized in ground combat and air combat to help train Orb's Army and its Navy fighter pilots. With their help Matthew had forged the ODF into an effective fighting force. There was however no way to truly test their abilities except in a real battle.

The other members of his family had all gotten jobs here in Orb. Alice was now the Orb Union's ambassador to the U.N., Will worked in Orb's biggest hospital located in the capital city, and Zack now worked for Morgenroete.

After driving for about twenty minutes they arrived at the Attha's estate. He pulled up to the gate and showed his invitation to the guard who was directing traffic. He got into a line of cars leading to the mansion's entrance. They waited ten minutes until they arrived at the entrance. He and his family got out of the car. Matthew gave his valet key and some money to the valet and walked inside.

There were a large number of people inside. There were members of the elected assembly, members of the noble families, wealthy businessmen, military officials, the news media, and his own family. He walked over to where his family had clustered together and began to mingle with some of them.

He saw Alice and walked over to her and greeted her. They talked for a few minutes until Representative Athha came to them and joined them. "Chief Representative good evening and congratulations."

"Thank you. I am glad you showed up." He turned to Alice and said, "Ambassador how did it go?"

"Not well I am afraid; the U.N. is refusing to do anything about the sponsor nation's forces."

Last year the AF, the EF, and the REA had established a joint military presence in the PLANTs airspace to enforce their will upon the colonies. This was unprecedented, for the first time ever the Big Three had actually agreed on something and were working together. This did not bode well for the PLANTs or for the rest of the world. Alice as the ambassador to the U.N. had been trying for the last year to have their forces pull out.

"We will have to try harder; Matthew how is the training going?"

"We are making good progress. Unfortunately I cannot tell you how well they'll fare in real combat. We will keep looking for more ways to improve the training regiment and keep a step ahead of the rest of the world. But when it boils down to it I think it will be your superior weapons technology that will give you the edge you need to win."

"I suppose you are right, but I sincerely wish we had no need for weapons."

"Well I can say from personal experience and from studying history that there will always be war and killing, Representative. Unfortunately for us humans are hardwired for this. All you can do Representative is to try to keep your people safe. Do that and I am sure that you will be able to die in peace."

The Representative seemed distracted by something. His eyes were looking around the room for something.

"Is everything all right?"

"I have been trying to find my daughter for the last ten minutes, without much success," he shrugged embarrassingly.

Matthew looked through the sea of people. Failing to find her he looked outside on the nearby balcony. "There she is," Matt pointed. But she was not alone out there. Leaning over the railing and watching the full moon was Richard.

"I don't believe I have ever met your son Matthew."

"Now is as good as any time I suppose."

Matt and Representative Athha left Alice and walked out to the balcony. Hearing their footsteps Richard turned around and faced them.

"Hi dad."

"What are you doing alone outside Richard?"

"I just needed some fresh air you know how I feel about large crowds; besides the moon is beautiful tonight. And I am not alone; I made a new friend tonight, though I still don't know her name yet."

"Richard I wanted you to meet my boss Chief Representative Athha."

The Representative held out his hand to shake which Richard grabbed and shook firmly.

"Representative Athha it is a pleasure to meet you, congratulations on your inauguration. From what I have seen you do in the news you will lead your people well."

"Well, it is good to see that today's youth are taking in interest in politics. I see you have met my daughter," gesturing to Cagalli.

"Wait a minute," said Richard as he turned to her. "You are the Representative's daughter!?"

"I could have sworn I told you," Cagalli said jokingly. "My name is Cagalli Yula Athha."

An aide walked up to them and said, "Sir it is time for you to give your speech."

"Thank you for the reminder." The speech's main point was to announce the construction of the Orb Union's proposed orbital elevator Ame-no-Mihashira. "Shall we then." With that they all walked inside.

************

Five years later-C.E. 63

The sound of gunfire filled the firing range as the last three rounds of Richard's magazine cleared the chamber of the pistol. All three shots went through the head of the electronic target at the other end of the range. Richard removed the empty clip and placed it and the pistol on the table next to him. He took off his ear and eye protection and put them on the table as well. He stepped down from the stool he was standing on and looked briefly at the nearby computer screen that gave him his shooting statistics. He had not missed any of his intended targets. He had been practicing for the last few months.

At first his parents had been against him learning how to shoot but he had talked his father into allowing it. Matthew had given the pistol as a birthday present to Richard, it was a 9mm pistol modified to fire 22 caliber rounds. Matthew had been able to get permission for Richard to fire at one of the Orb Union's training camps. Richard was allowed to come and shoot any time he wanted, provided he had ammo to use. Chores and good grades were rewarded with ammo.

Richard had been busy the last few weeks with school work and had not had a chance to shoot. But with the school year ending the amount of work had shrank giving him the chance to come today and shoot off some of the ammo that had accumulated.

He was out of ammo so he decided to go home. He put the pistol, the empty magazines, and his ear and eye protection back into a steel case and locked it. He copied his shooting data to his flash drive. He then picked up the case and left the range. The training camp was empty today, which had provided him with the perfect conditions in which to practice. He saw the car that was waiting for him. He got into the left hand back seat and politely asked the driver in Japanese to take him back home. Because both of his parents were busy with work they hired a driver to take Richard to places he wanted to go. The driver, Mr. Tanaka, could only speak Japanese. Luckily Richard and his family had learned to speak fluent Japanese and were able to communicate with him. Richard had also learned how to speak thirteen other languages; seven of them were from his homeland of the Atlantic Federation.

After about a thirty minute drive the car arrived back at his family's estate. "Mom, Dad I'm home" he called out once he was inside. "We're in the living room Richard, hurry and get in here quick." He put the case containing his gun on the floor and ran to where his parents were waiting. They were watching a large flat screen television that was mounted on the wall. The image on the screen showed a man wearing a space suit inside what looked like the control room of a space craft. The logo at the bottom left side of the screen read WNN, the World News Network. At the bottom center of the screen read the caption 'Breaking News". It was a news report, **"Great just what we all need, more bad news**,**"** Richard thought to himself.

"…_I am currently aboard the Atlantic Federation warship Washington. The Washington is one of over sixty vessels in the sponsor nations coalition fleet that is currently operating within the PLANTs airspace. The fleet has been mobilized in response to the PLANT Supreme Council's refusal to reestablish exports to Earth."_

This was not a surprise to Richard. In C.E. 60 the PLANTs had become a major source of Earth's energy and manufactured goods. The PLANTs collected solar energy which was then sent to Earth using energy transmitters. The emitted energy transmissions were captured by energy receivers here on Earth. The energy was then sent to various energy collectors to provide power for consumption. All the Earth nations except Orb and the Kingdom of Scandinavia used energy produced from the PLANTs. This allowed the sponsor nations to become extremely wealthy by selling PLANT created energy to the world. Many nations were growing increasingly resentful over how much the sponsor nations were charging them for PLANT energy. The quotas were so high for manufactured goods and energy that the PLANTs had to use not only their solar energy but a significant portion of their nuclear power as well to meet the demands, creating a strain on relations between the PLANTs and its sponsor nations. Further straining these relations was the large amount of anti-Coordinator terrorism that surfaced in the last three years. There were many terror cells operating within the PLANTs. Two years ago they had attempted to kill Patrick Zala and failed. And just a few weeks ago the PLANTs energy production department had been destroyed by Blue Cosmos. The PLANT Supreme Council had proposed a temporary suspension of exports, but the sponsor nations had rejected that suggestion. This sent the PLANTs into a severe energy crisis. It had gotten so bad that a number of the PLANTs engineers had sabotaged the energy transmitters to stop all energy transmissions to Earth, and the PLANT Supreme Council refused to fix them. The sponsor nations were enraged by their colonies rebelliousness. This sudden stop of energy transmissions from the PLANTs the Earth nations now faced an energy crisis of their own resulting from their overdependence on PLANT energy. Well it was abundantly clear the sponsor nations would not let the PLANTs get away with this.

The image on the television screen had changed it was split in half. One half of the screen showed the reporter in the space and the other half now showed an older man probably in his late fifties sitting behind a news desk. _"I just received word from our space craft that is in the area"_ said the older man. _"They will be broadcasting to us a live video feed of the area."_ The image changed again, this time to a view of space. Richard could see the distinct hourglass shape of some of the PLANTs. A few seconds later an Agamemnon class carrier dominated the screen. Its linear catapults extended and twelve Mobile Armors launched away from the carrier. The image shifted and zoomed in on the Mobile Armors. They were gathering with the squadrons from the other ships, there were hundreds of them. Richard was able to see two different models of Mobile Armors, the TS-MA1 Titan and the TS-MA2 Moebius.

The TS-MA1 Titan was an older model equipped with only a linear gun, two 20 mm Vulcan guns, and two missiles. It had two engines that burned a synthetic propellant. Its standard color scheme was a light gray. The new TS-MA2 Moebius was armed with a linear gun, two 40mm Vulcan guns and four wire guided missiles. Its body design was a sharp contrast to the Titan's; instead of having a single solid body the Moebius had two different rectangular sections that its engines were mounted on. They were connected to the main section were the cockpit was by two spheres. It had better armor than the Titan and while this made it heavier it compensated by utilizing four compact engines, which made it faster than the Titan. Both the Titan and the Moebius were designed by Richard's grandfather Daniel. The Azrael Conglomerate had been contracted by the Atlantic Federation to produce these Mobile Armors. After the sponsor nations had formed their coalition force to police the PLANTs the Azrael Conglomerate began to sell these Mobile Armors to Eurasia and East Asia, although they also sold them to other nations. Richard was disgusted to see how his grandfather's creations, what he had intended to be used for the defense of his country, being used as an instrument of oppression against the PLANTs.

The Mobile Armor squadrons then began to separate. The squadrons were flying only a few meters away from the PLANTs outer walls. They began to fire their linear guns. Not at the PLANTs of course, the sponsor nations would never risk damaging their precious production sites. This was purely an intimidation maneuver their only goal was to scare the PLANTs into meeting their demands. After twenty minutes of this the Mobile Armors suddenly broke off and returned to their motherships. Once they had returned the warships all began to return to their base, a large space station that the sponsor nations had constructed in the PLANTs airspace that served as the fleet's headquarters.

The screen reverted back to its original image of the reporter on the Washington. _"I have just received word that the PLANT Supreme Council has agreed to resume all exports to Earth. Also they have agreed to handover the engineers responsible for sabotaging the energy transmitters to the sponsor nations for prosecution." _

"**You mean execution,"** was Richard's mental reply. While this solved the immediate crisis on Earth it would only cause more problems for the PLANTs. Cries for autonomy would grow in the PLANTs. In response Earth would tighten its imperialistic grasp, resulting in even greater cries for PLANT autonomy. Richard remembered a famous quote that he came across while he was studying twentieth century history of the A.D. era. It fit this situation perfectly. **"****Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."** Things would only get worse.

************

0100 Hours

October 12, C.E. 68

Space, L5

Aboard the cargo vessel Mandelbrot, en route to the PLANTs

Captain Ronald Steele sat silently on the bridge of the Cargo vessel Mandelbrot. His fleet comprised of the Marseille III class Mandelbrot and four Marseille II class vessels. All five cargo vessels in the fleet slowly crept back towards the PLANTs. As he sat there he reflected on the many radical changes that had occurred in the PLANTs. Siegel Clyne cofounder of the ZAFT organization had been elected as Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council. The Council now being dominated by ZAFT members voted to make autonomy and trading independence its highest priorities. This had enraged the sponsor nations who responded with a show of armed force just as they had done during the PLANT energy crisis of '63. Only this time the PLANTs had not backed down. On Earth Blue Cosmos was growing more powerful and influential. The persecution of Coordinators had grown so bad that almost the entire Coordinator population had left Earth. The PLANTs population had exploded with all these new immigrants who came from all over globe seeking a safe refuge; unfortunately this had led to a problem. With more people the PLANTs needed more food. And unfortunately with the tension between the sponsor nations and the PLANTs less food was being sold to the PLANTs. Food supplies were being rationed but it wouldn't be enough to feed the millions of people living in the PLANTs. It was only a matter of time before people would begin to starve to death. People would start fighting over supplies and when that happened all hell would break loose.

Fortunately Chairman Clyne had been able to make secret arrangements with the United States of South America and the Oceania Union. The PLANTs would exchange shipments manufactured goods for shipments of food from these countries. And that was the whole reason he and his fleet were out here. Three days ago they had rendezvoused with a South American convoy and exchanged supplies. They then began there silent run back to the PLANTs. While this meant they had to go at a significantly slower speed they would be able to avoid detection, as long as they were not being actively searched for. It was absolutely necessary for them to avoid detection from the sponsor nations space fleets. If they were caught out here it would not only prevent the PLANTs from getting the much needed food, but it would give the sponsor nations justification for tighter control of the PLANTs.

Captain Steele's fleet had pulled off two successful trips. Hopefully the third would go off without a hitch. To tell the truth he was more concerned about running into space pirates that preyed on cargo vessels coming and going from the PLANTs. As a precautionary measure all the cargo vessels had been loaded with Titan Mobile Armors for protection, three in the Mandelbrot and two in each of the other four ships. Captain Steele hadn't asked where the Council had acquired the Mobile Armors, which was probably for the best. Possession of the Mobile Armors would only add to the list of problems that the PLANTs would face if the sponsor nations found out what they were doing. This was because the PLANTs were banned from having weapons of any kind except guns for use by the PLANT domestic security forces, although that was probably about to change. He had heard a rumor that ZAFT was going to be reorganized into a military force that would defend the PLANTs from sponsor nation attack. Captain Steele thought that was laughable. It was impossible for the PLANTs to fight against Earth, to even seriously consider this was madness. The PLANTs did not have the resources to fight against the sponsor nations, they were outnumbered and outgunned. They didn't even have the means to produce their own food. It would only lead to the deaths of millions of people living in the PLANTs. No there only hope to obtain their autonomy would be to appeal the UN to have the sponsor nations release their control of the PLANTs. If it went to an assembly vote it would pass because all of the other countries supported the PLANTs move for independence.

Captain Steele's train of thought was broken when an alarm went off at one of his bridge officers consoles. "Heat source detected, multiple contacts closing from directly behind us!"

"Can you tell what they are?"

"Hang on I am getting the sensor data now. O shit they're sponsor nation warships, detecting six Drake class, four Nelson class, and a single Agamemnon class. Smaller heat sources detected, they've launched Mobile Armors."

"Signal the fleet, have them launch the Titans." There was no way that eleven obsolete Mobile Armors could win. But they would provide the needed distraction so that the fleet could escape. "Helm, engines to full speed, we need to get to the PLANTs now. Have the other ships do the same."

"Yes, sir."

Abandoning stealth, the five ships speed away from their pursuers. While their cargo vessels lacked any form of weaponry, they made up for it with their speed. The sponsor nations warships were not very fast. They could easily outrun them.

"Sir a Moebius is closing in on the Fatou." The Moebius fired two shots from its linear gun and launched one of its missiles. They hit one of the Fatou's engines. The Moebius turned around to attack the Fatou again. But before it could fire it was destroyed by the linear gun from one of the Titan's.

"The Fatou's engines are disabled, they are requesting help."

"Hold your course and speed."

"Sir?"

"Just do it!"

"Yes sir!"

They couldn't stop to help them, if they did the rest of the fleet wouldn't make back to the PLANTs. The food shipment was too important to risk. Shame began to build up in Captain Steele as a Nelson class closed in on the Fatou. But he was utterly shocked when the warship fired its beam cannons at the defenseless cargo ship. He had expected them to capture the ship and imprison the crew. But no they killed them, those ****ing naturals killed them. This was a new low for the sponsor nations. This incident would cause the already growing anti-sponsor nation sentiment to explode.

"How long until we reach the PLANTs?"

"At our current speed we should arrive within six hours," replied the helmsmen.

"Are any of the Titans still out there?"

"No sir, all Titans have been destroyed."

The sensor alarm went off again. "Incoming heat source detected!"

"Wher…" Before he could finish his sentence the Julia was hit by a beam shot and exploded. The sensors detected over thirty sponsor nation warships directly ahead of them. They must have come from the sponsor nation defense satellite that was in the PLANTs airspace. The other fleet of ships had merely been a tool to flush them out so the main fleet that was lying in wait could detect and destroy them.

They were completely surrounded; there was no escaping this time. A Nelson class filled the view outside the bridge's armored viewport. Captain Steele stood there helpless to do anything except watch as the Nelson class fired a blast from its beam cannons. The green streak of energy struck the bridge and everything went dark.

************

1458 Hours

May 25, C.E. 69

Orb Union Space Colony Heliopolis

L3

Leaning back in his chair Richard sat waiting for class to end. Advanced World History was one of the most boring classes he had this year. It wasn't that he didn't like the subject it was because he already knew most of this stuff, having studied the subject on his own for all his life. This week the class had gone into more recent history studying the Reconstruction War. He knew much about this having talked to his Grandfather many times about the war. He missed his grandfather, he had not seen in five years since he had moved to the PLANTs. He never understood the reason why he left the Atlantic Federation being the patriot he was. This was a continuous source of confusion and anger for his family. Many in his family believe that he defected to ZAFT, though there was no evidence to support this theory.

The bell rang announcing the end of the school day and all the students began to pack up their backpacks. "Remember this will all be on the quiz tomorrow," announced the teacher to the departing students. Richard grabbed his pack and put it on his back. He left the class room and headed to his locker. After he removed the needed books and placed them into his pack he left and headed outside. There was a park not too far from the school that he and his friends agreed to meet so they could study together.

As he walked to the park he thought about his father. Ever since the dreaded Mandelbrot Incident occurred, the threat of war with the PLANTs had been steadily increasing each day. So the Atlantic Federation and the other PLANT sponsor nations had been recruiting any one they could get their hands on into their militaries. The Atlantic Federation navy had contacted his father and offered to reinstate his commission, to promote him, and give him his own fleet. He had accepted the offer after about a week of consideration and was now a rear admiral in command of the AF's third space fleet. Not everyone in the family had approved of his decision to rejoin the military, especially his wife, causing a rift to form. Unfortunately once he had returned to the AF Blue Cosmos had tried to kill him once again. They had made several attempts, all ending in failure.

Because he believed Richard needed to experience life in space, he decided to send him to Heliopolis the Orb Union's space colony. So for the past year Richard had lived and gone to school here in the colony and planned to go to college here after graduating. At first he had kept to himself, but eventually he had made several friends at his school.

After walking for a few minutes he made it to the park. He saw a table underneath an awning where his friends Kira Yamato, Sai Argyle, Kuzzey Buskirk, Tolle Koenig, and Miriallia Haw had gathered. "Sorry I'm late guys, I had to grab my literature textbook so I can study for the test."

"It not like you to be late Rich, I thought you Coordinators were always on time," Tolle said in obvious joking manner.

Richard smiled and replied, "I knew it was a bad idea to tell you all I was a Coordinator, now you guys think I'm like superman or something." Richard pulled out his laptop and connected to Heliopolis's computer network, the network was connected to the Earth's planetary computer network through a powerful wireless connection between communication satellites. Once connected a small message appeared on his desktop. It was a news alert, Richard had set up his laptop to automatically inform him of any new news stories that involved the PLANTs relations with the sponsor nations. A few weeks ago it was revealed that the PLANTs were planning to remodel Junius seven through ten for agricultural production. This was in direct violation of the sponsor nations mandate that the PLANTs be prohibited from creating their own food.

"Hang on guys I want to see this news report." He clicked the link and it took him to the WNN's website. There was a live broadcast running right now. Richard activated the link that said 'Watch Live'. After a few seconds of loading the image of the WNN news room appeared the screen. Richard hit the full screen function on the site and the image filled the entire screen.

"_For those just tuning in,"_ reported the female newscaster, _"a fleet of sponsor nation warships has begun an intimidation attack against the PLANTs. This tactic has been used several times by the sponsor nations, each time resulting in the PLANTs capitulating to the demands of the sponsor nations. But with the PLANTs refusal to cease pursing autonomy from the sponsor nations last year will they back down this time? Hang on we are now receiving video from our space craft."_

The image changed, now it displayed the space around the PLANTs. There were sponsor nation warships launching Mobile Armors. **"Déjà Vu."** The Mobile Armors did much as they did six years ago when he had watched that newscast with his parents. After about two minutes of this Richard was getting ready to close the video when he saw a faint explosion appear in the scene. "What the heck was that? Are they firing at the PLANTs!?"

Dozens of smaller explosions followed the first. Then a bright explosion occurred within the close proximity of the camera. The image zoomed out a little to reveal the culprit. A Nelson class warship had exploded; he could see the distinct wreckage floating in the picture. The feed quickly changed back to the news room. _"I am not sure what is going on but we will continue to run the video as long as possible." _The screen then went back to space craft's video transmission. Explosions now filled the screen; they would appear and then disappear quickly. This appeared to be a battle, between the sponsor nations Moebius Mobile Armors and some unknown machines.

One of these unknown came into clear view. It was much larger than any known Mobile Armor in existence. "Is that a giant robot!?" Indeed it was, it had two arms, two legs, a single pink eye on its face, there was a protrusion coming out of its head at an angle, it was light gray in color, and it had a pair of what appeared to be wings.

"No way can this be real," Kuzzey said.

"This is has to be fake," Tolle said.

"I don't think it is guys," Richard replied. "The PLANTs have the most advanced technology, if anyone could create a giant robot it would be them."

The robot flew toward a Drake class. Dodging CIWS fire it pulled out a sword and stabbed it into the ship's hull. It then flew towards the rear of the ship slicing through the hull. After the machine flew away the ship exploded. Three Moebius's chased after it firing their linear guns. The robot easily dodged the shots and allowed the Moebius's to pass it. The robot then pulled out a gun and fired at the Mobile Armors causing them to explode.

Something new then appeared on the battlefield, a small fleet of light green ships. Each ship had three massive turrets located on the top of their hulls. One of these ships fired a barrage of beam blasts from its turrets. The blasts hit an Agamemnon class which vanished in an explosion. Three of these ships closed in on the sponsor nations defense satellite and fired their beam cannons at it. Richard watched as the satellite was completely destroyed. The sponsor fleet began to retreat from the PLANTs airspace.

Having seen enough Richard turned off the laptop and closed it. He put it back into his backpack and slung the pack over his shoulder. "Sorry to bail guys, but I got to get home and call my dad. I need to find out what is going to happen to him because of this."

"It's ok we'll manage without you, go call your dad," Kira said.

"Thank you, I'll see you all tomorrow." Hurrying Richard ran to a nearby transportation station. To help people move throughout the colony the Heliopolis Transit Authority had created a semi-automated transit system. Computer controlled cars would park at stations throughout the colony and wait until someone would use them. The cars could be computer controlled or manually controlled. Luckily a car was there waiting for him. Richard hopped into the driver's seat and set the car to manual control. The vehicle's computer requested to scan his driver's license to confirm he was legally able to drive manually. He quickly swiped his license through the scanner and once the computer disengaged the lock on the manual controls he drove off.

After about twenty minutes of driving he arrived at his apartment. He pulled up to the curb, reset the computer control, and got out. Once he exited, the vehicle sped off towards the nearest transportation station. He walked up to his apartment's door and unlocked it with his key. He walked inside and closed the door behind him. He dropped his pack on the dinner table. It was simple apartment having only one bedroom, one bathroom, a small kitchen and dinning area, and a small living area.

He went to his room where his computer terminal was. While there was a phone system in the colony, it could only call phones that were inside colony. To communicate with people on Earth from space you had to connect to the planetary computer network. Through the network one could communicate with anyone using a web chat room or a video/audio transmission. Richard activated the terminal and connected to the planetary network. But before he could activate the communication software and initiate a video transmission he saw that he had already received a video message. He looked at the sender he noticed that it was an Atlantic Federation military computer ID number. He knew this because he had seen them numerous times when his father had sometimes contacted him from military bases or ships. But this message was different from those because it did not identify who was sending the message, only from where it was sent from. Curious to see who sent the message, he decided to open it.

Immediately after opening the file the image of man filled the screen. The man appeared to be in his late forties and was wearing the uniform of an Atlantic Federation Navy officer. The silver oak leaf insignia on his collar indicated he was a commander. _"There is a virus embedded in this message programmed to completely erase the file upon its completion,"_ said the man, _"So listen very carefully to what I am about to tell you. My name is Commander William Sutherland and I have a proposition for you." _


End file.
